OSHA Versus Cal-OSHA WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?

There are three things no one can escape OSHA, Cal- OSHA OR Death and Taxes.

Welcome, whether you are a California company looking to expand into another part of the nation or a company from outside California intending to enlarge your company into the state, California’s occupational safety and health plan and rules are likely to be a problem for you.

This report covers some essential differences between Federal OSHA and Cal/OSHA. For the large part, these can be prerequisites California has that Federal OSHA doesn’t have. Nevertheless, special compliance requirements where general conditions are used by California OSHA instead are occasionally utilized by Federal OSHA. For instance, many Federal OSHA standards have special training and retraining conditions, but California leaves retraining and training agenda mainly to companies within their Injury and Illness Prevention Plans.

This guide will not cover every difference between Federal OSHA and Cal/OSHA, but it emphasizes differences in the essential areas of:

Normal construction

Injury and Illness Prevention Plans

Recordkeeping

Dangerous substances

Ergonomics

The Enforcement of Standards

Federal OSHA’s requirements for General Industry are contained within the Code of Federal Regulations at 29 CFR 1910; Federal OSHA’s requirements for the Construction Industry are contained within 29 CFR 1926. Recordkeeping requirements are found in 29 CFR 1904. Certain other industries (for example, mining and shipbuilding) are covered under other parts of the federal standards, but employers under federal jurisdiction who comply with either the General Industry standards or the Construction standards, as well as the Recordkeeping standards, can feel reasonably assured that their OSHA compliance bases are covered.

California is now reorganizing its Title 8 regulations, using the regulations of Washington State. (Washington recently reorganized its occupational security and wellness standards in ways that have been well received by companies there.) The standards will not influence what companies must comply with in any substantial manner; yet, it will make compliance simpler by making the standards themselves easier to discover.

Another phase is to consolidate all rules that are agricultural right into a different Agricultural Safety Order. The existing schedule for all these changes goes through the middle of 2007. Every time a Federal OSHA Compliance Officer (CO) discovers, during an inspection, a risk that may cause serious harm or death which is not covered by a current OSHA standard, the enforcement officer can mention the company for violating the General Duty Clause. This clause was utilized to cite companies for exposing workers to pesticides; to mention construction industry companies for blood borne pathogens risks (the bloodborne pathogens standard is a General Industry standard, which does not apply to building); and to cite employers for ergonomic risks.

Citations under the General Duty Clause resulted in some the best-projected fees of any standard in the 2005 fiscal year of OSHA. Federal OSHA must have the ability to demonstrate the subsequent five things are accurate to get a General Duty Clause citation to be valid:

The mentioned workplace state or action needs to have presented a danger to an employee (not only had the possibility to present a risk).

The risk has to be an accepted risk.

The risk has to be unlikely to cause serious physical injury or death.

Possible means must exist to eliminate or materially decrease the risk.

The company knew, or by exercising reasonable diligence might have known, of the dangerous state.

The strict administrative processes rules, which apply to any or all lawmaking within California in the state, preclude the state from having a catchall management of this kind. Instead, an inspector who identifies a critical danger not covered under among Cal/OSHA’s security orders may:

• Mention the company for breaking the Injury and Illness Prevention Program standard, which requires companies to recognize workplace risks, abate those risks, educate workers about risks, and train workers in safe work practices. • Pioneer rulemaking that is new. The California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board writes all new standards in California. Requests for new standards may come from DOSH inspectors, public requests, or board staff, among other sources. • Begin the development of an Order to Take Special Action (occasionally called a Particular Order). Orders to take Specific Actions applied and are written on a site-specific or company-specific basis.

As described previously they can result in new rulemaking.

INJURY AND ILLNESS PREVENTION PLANS Since 1991, California companies are required to keep a written, effective Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP). It is an all-inclusive security and wellness management plan which involves every part of the Cal/OSHA compliance of a worksite.

Cal/OSHA proposes that management’s dedication to the IIPP be created using bonuses, organizational policies, and disciplinary activities. To do this, an IIPP should:

• establish quantifiable goals — define management’s security and well-being obligations • provide for acknowledgment of management’s role in security and health — create a strategy to support reporting of dangerous states • allocate resources to abate hazards found in the workplace • Demand direction to lead by example (for instance, by wearing required personal protection gear when in production regions) Safety Communications.

An IIPP must have a two-way system for communicating with workers in an understandable form on wellness and security problems. Communicating strategies could include:

A method must be included by an IIPP. This could be achieved through:

• acknowledgment of workers who follow such work practices • retraining systems and training • Disciplinary processes Scheduled Reviews. Included in these are a preliminary risk evaluation survey and follow-up reviews. The original risk evaluation survey must be completed by a qualified person. Your IIPP should detail the manner in which you make use of the following in risk evaluation and control: • regular reviews • whenever new processes, materials, procedures, or equipment are introduced to the office that presents a fresh risk • whenever direction becomes conscious of a new or previously unrecognized risk • procedures for correction and control • identification of appropriate Cal/OSHA safety orders • Abatement precedence, including scheduling procedures for abatement actions Accident Investigation.

You need to possess a written process for extensively investigating injuries that let you recognize the cause(s) of the injury or near miss. Investigations ought to be run by people that were trained and ought to answer these questions: — what occurred? — Why did it occur? — What needs to be achieved? — Abatement Processes.

For correcting unsafe or unhealthy conditions, work practices, and work processes in a timely manner, methods or procedures should be detailed in your IIPP. You need to address: — timely abatement, ascertained on the basis of the severity of the danger — processes for correcting a risk if it is found or detected continued on the next page CAL/OSHA Compliance Advisor SPECIAL REPORT (c) 2006 Employer Resource Institute conditions by reference and contains some additional demands).

There isn’t any statutory national analog to California’s IIPP demand; yet, Federal OSHA has released guidelines for creating Security and Health Management Programs (SHMP), which are widely used in its Voluntary Protection Program and Consulting plans. OSHA’s SHMP guidelines cover

California’s IIPP Requirements:

Companies that have a Sate Hazard Mitigation Plan set up that follows Federal OSHA’s guidelines might have the ability to grow and accommodate it easily to abide in California; California companies with established IIPPs may find themselves a step ahead of the game. All serious work injuries- all fatalities and connected injuries or sicknesses should be reported as soon as the company finds out about them. In practice, companies have up to eight hours to report such occurrences to their closest DOSH enforcement office.

Companies with fewer than ten workers may instruct workers in safe work practices training materials that are composed will not be needed. By maintaining a log for every worker, the training documentation requirements can be complied with by them. The log should record directions given to the worker when hired and when assigned to new responsibilities that pertain to the exceptional risks of the occupation. • Modest companies in low-risk businesses or small companies with low experience modification rates. Local government entities will not be needed to keep records regarding the measures are taken to execute and preserve the IIPP. (While this used to be the case as recent as 2012, it is no longer correct. Every employer who has one or more employees must now document everything in the Safety Program/Illness Injury Prevention Program.) • Building companies. Companies with occasional or seasonal workers. These companies are regarded as being in conformity with IIPP demands when they embrace one of the model plans of DOSH: either the Prevention Model Program for the Prevention Model Program for Employers with Intermittent Workers in Agriculture or Companies of Irregular Workers.

Safety Data Sheets

Safety Data Sheets must describe possible health hazards in lay terms. Prop. 65 applies to companies located in California who have 10 or more workers unless they’re: — Authorities companies–city, county, district, state, or federal government agencies. — Whenever people are subjected to substances discovered within this list, companies with 10 or more workers must give a warning. In case the substance is covered under the Hazard Communication Standard, compliance with this particular standard’s requirements is regarded as compliance with Prop. 65, as well. In practical terms, for most companies, this means that compliance with all the Hazard Communication Standard can also be conformity with Prop. 65. Nevertheless, should your workers be exposed to some substance on the Prop. 65 list that’s not otherwise covered under the Hazard Communication Standard, you’re required to supply clear and reasonable caution to those workers before they’re exposed.

A “clear and reasonable caution,” as required by Prop. 65, may be supplied through tagging, posting signs, or other means. Cautions are going to be well below levels which were reported to cause reproductive damage or don’t need to be supplied if the exposure is not high enough to present no substantial threat of cancer. To help businesses in determining what those amounts are, California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment prints a set of “safe harbor amounts” (accessible at www.oehha.ca.gov/ prop65/getNSRLs.html). Reports have to be submitted for: — all controlled carcinogens that define a demand for an employer to set up a controlled place — controlled carcinogens that don’t have a controlled area demand, for just about any use of a concentration greater than 0.1 percent by weight or volume that results in exposure or possible exposure to workers.

Carcinogens

When carcinogens are found in the workplace, the following procedures must be adhered to • a simple description of every procedure or procedure that creates worker exposure, including an approximation of the number of workers that participated in the act or procedure • the names and addresses of any collective bargaining units or alternative representatives of the affected workers. • First use has to be reported within 15 calendar days. Reports should be sent to: Occupational Carcinogen Control Unit Office of Occupational Security and Well-Being P.O. Box 420603 San Francisco, CA 94142 Temporary worksites.

Additional reports are required when using carcinogens.

• Crises. If workers are subjected to carcinogens due to management equipment failure, equipment failure, container rupture, or another event that results in the sudden and potentially dangerous release of a carcinogen, this exposure has to be reported within 24 hours. • The report must contain any facts offered at the time the report is prepared, and should be submitted to the DOSH district office that is nearest. • Within 15 calendar days after a crisis exposure happens, a written report has to be filed that contains: — a description of the procedure or procedure included, including its place, the number of controlled carcinogen released, as well as the length of the crisis — a statement of the known or estimated degree of worker exposure to the controlled carcinogen, as well as the place of pollution — an investigation of the situation that led up to the crisis — a description of the measures which have been or will soon be taken, with special dates, to prevent similar incidents • Posting. A copy of any carcinogen exposure report should be posted in the office in a place that’s easy to get to workers that were affected. The reports for temporary and permanent work sites must stay posted until carcinogen use stops. Crisis reports should be posted for at least 30 days following the exact date of filing.

Asbestos Requirements:

Asbestos Enrollment is required should you be a California company whose workers may work with asbestos, or if you’re a California contractor who abates asbestos -containing substances, you might be needed to enroll with all the State of California. In the event you intend to engage a contractor to do asbestos-related work, you will like to assess to be sure any contractor you are contemplating using is on the listing of registered contractors of DOSH.

Federal OSHA has no condition that is similar.

Asbestos-related work. This applies to actions that will disturb asbestos-containing construction materials (ACCM) in a sense that may release asbestos fibers into the atmosphere. Occupations that are big. The job must require at least 100 square feet of ACCM at one worksite. Contractors will not be permitted to divide a big occupation up into increments less than one hundred square feet to steer clear of the registration requirement; this holds true even in the event the ACCM is situated in different regions. Contractors that are required to enroll could also need to finish asbestos licensing requirements managed by the Contractors State License Board. 7 (c) 2006 Company Resource Institute SPECIFIC REPORT CAL/OSHA Compliance Adviser Companies that will be performing work on their particular property still must enroll, despite the fact that they’re not subject to the licensing board’s demands. The conventional method is meant to address the security of procedures that include certain highly dangerous substances recorded in the Appendix A. of the standard it requires companies to create processes which will prevent or minimize the effects of chemical injuries. California embraced its PSM standard, General Industry Safety Order 5189, on the basis of the national standard, but with a couple of differences: — Electric supply and distribution systems. Info regarding the gear in the controlled procedure must contain distribution systems and electric supply. — Hazard analysis. Along with the national conditions, any preceding event that had a likely potential for catastrophic effects at work must be identified by the hazard analysis report. The last report including the outcome of the hazard analysis for every procedure should be accessible in the specific workplace for review by any individual working for the reason that region.

The company must consult with all the affected workers–and, where appropriate, their representatives–on actions and the development of risk evaluations. — Along with the national conditions, the pre-startup safety review must call for workers with expertise in engineering and process operations. They need to be chosen according to their expertise as well as knowledge of the process systems — Incident reports.

The company must set up a method to quickly address and resolve the incident report findings and recommendations. Report recommendations should be executed in a timely manner, and actions should be taken to prevent a return. The company must prepare a report and give a duplicate of the report or convey its contents to other staff as well as any or all workers working in the facility where the event happened.

Ergonomics

Cal/OSHA’s ergonomics standard requires that companies having a history of work-related RMIs create a course made to reduce such injuries. The training course must contain discussions of the following: • The company’s ergonomic injury prevention plan • The vulnerabilities which have been associated with RMIs • The symptoms and effects of injuries due to repetitive movement • The need for reporting symptoms and injuries to the company • Procedures utilized by the employer to minimize RMIs. ?

While we have talked about some of the differences between Cal-Osha and The Federal Osha lets, take a few minutes and examine in great detail the set of requirements that make up the Illness and Injury Prevention Program. The formally written Injury and Illness Prevention Program must address a company plan that will ensure the safety of the company’s employees. To do that, the following areas must be addressed.

• A management commitment to safety in the workplace • Their must be a plan for communicating Safety In The Workplace • A Plan That Ensures Employees will comply • Periodic Inspections must be a part of the company’s Safety Program • Employers must Implement an Accident investigation Procedure • Abatement procedures to ensure that the work environment is safe for all employees • Regular Safety Training of all employees • Recordkeeping. This would include the person who has been deemed to be the Safety Officer. Cal-Osha Wants Management to Be Involved. • By developing a set of Company Policies and incentives • And by developing a set of company disciplinary actions. • Management should set and maintain realistic objectives that are attainable. • Cal-Osha expects management to create a method that will encourage employees to report any and all unsafe work conditions with fear or reprisal. • All of the management team should be leading by example. This would include the wearing of the proper protective equipment that is required by the job being done.

Welcome, whether you are a California company looking to expand into another part of the nation or a company from outside California intending to enlarge your company into the state, California’s occupational safety and health plan and rules are likely to be a problem for you.

This report covers some essential differences between Federal OSHA and Cal/OSHA. For the large part, these can be prerequisites California has that Federal OSHA doesn’t have. Nevertheless, special compliance requirements where general conditions are used by California OSHA instead are occasionally utilized by Federal OSHA. For instance, many Federal OSHA standards have special training and retraining conditions, but California leaves retraining and training agenda mainly to companies within their Injury and Illness Prevention Plans.

This guide will not cover every difference between Federal OSHA and Cal/OSHA, but it emphasizes differences in the essential areas of:

The Enforcement of Standards

Federal OSHA’s requirements for General Industry are contained within the Code of Federal Regulations at 29 CFR 1910; Federal OSHA’s requirements for the Construction Industry are contained within 29 CFR 1926. Recordkeeping requirements are found in 29 CFR 1904. Certain other industries (for example, mining and shipbuilding) are covered under other parts of the federal standards, but employers under federal jurisdiction who comply with either the General Industry standards or the Construction standards, as well as the Recordkeeping standards, can feel reasonably assured that their OSHA compliance bases are covered. California is now reorganizing its Title 8 regulations, using the regulations of Washington State. (Washington recently reorganized its occupational security and wellness standards in ways that have been well received by companies there.) The standards will not influence what companies must comply with in any substantial manner; yet, it will make compliance simpler by making the standards themselves easier to discover.

Another phase is to consolidate all rules that are agricultural right into a different Agricultural Safety Order. The existing schedule for all these changes goes through the middle of 2007. Every time a Federal OSHA Compliance Officer (CO) discovers, during an inspection, a risk that may cause serious harm or death which is not covered by a current OSHA standard, the enforcement officer can mention the company for violating the General Duty Clause. This clause was utilized to cite companies for exposing workers to pesticides; to mention construction industry companies for blood borne pathogens risks (the bloodborne pathogens standard is a General Industry standard, which does not apply to building); and to cite employers for ergonomic risks.

Citations under the General Duty Clause resulted in some the best-projected fees of any standard in the 2005 fiscal year of OSHA. Federal OSHA must have the ability to demonstrate the subsequent five things are accurate to get a General Duty Clause citation to be valid:

The mentioned workplace state or action needs to have presented a danger to an employee (not only had the possibility to present a risk).

The risk has to be an accepted risk.

The risk has to be unlikely to cause serious physical injury or death.

Possible means must exist to eliminate or materially decrease the risk.

The company knew, or by exercising reasonable diligence might have known, of the dangerous state.

Employee Participation.

An Illness Injury Prevention Program must include a system for ensuring that employees comply with safe and healthful work practices.
There are really two great methods that accomplish this and they are as follows:

These scheduled inspections should be done with a hazard assessment survey and follow-up inspections should also be scheduled to ensure that the hazards that are found are abated. A qualified Safety Officer must complete the initial hazard assessment survey and should also be responsible to follow up or have a well-trained employee do the follow up. The proper way to conduct and accident investigation, make sure to get the answers to the following questions.

• What happened?
• Why did it happen?
• What should be done to ensure that this never happens again?

Methods or procedures for correcting unsafe or unhealthy conditions, work practices, and work procedures in a timely manner must be detailed in your IIPP. You must address:
The purpose of this article is to help all employers understand that Cal-Osha is not playing anymore. If your company fails to comply you will be fined. Cal-Osha has been told that they must raise their fines by as much as 80% and recently Cal-Osha is going to do that.

Employers need to understand that Safety has become a priority here in California. While it is important for your companies safety program or Illness and Injury Prevention Program to address the eight standards that Cal-Osha has established it is even more important to do what your Safety Program says you will do.